Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

In one of the most impressive debut novels ever written by a teenager, Shut the Door, says the New York Post, is "a raw and disturbing portrayal of a suburban family."

In a household spiraling out of control, Lilliana and Vivian are two teenage sisters struggling to carve out their identities as young adults, taking risks and undergoing disturbing transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents. Beatrice and Harry's marriage is disintegrating, and it no longer provides the safe harbor their daughters so desperately need. As the girls test boundaries and push limits, their silent cries for help are lost within the apathy that has crept into their family life. Harry's prolonged absence on a business trip finally provides the impetus to reevaluate family roles and relationships--and the choices made are shocking. In the vein of American Beauty, this evocative family portrait reveals just what happens when our support system falls away and we become emotionally disconnected from the ones we love the most.

Review

"One of the year's edgiest books." -Teen Vogue

"[A] potent grown-up tale about an everyday suburban family--including two well-drawn teenage daughters--teetering on the edge of destruction. Affecting and insightful!" -US Weekly

"This precocious debut by a 17-year-old author bears unblinking witness to an ordinary family's plunge into folie a quatre...Spellbinding...Marquit skillfully interweaves recurring motifs...Sure to attract a Gen-Y following and further traumatize parents." -Kirkus

"A prismatic page-turner about the lies we tell ourselves and each other, and the inventions we cling to--all from a young scribe who's well on her way to brilliance." -Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble

About the Author

Amanda Marquit, nineteen years old, graduated from New York City's Professional Children's School and enrolled at Brown University in the fall of 2005. Amanda began work on Shut the Door, her first novel,at age fourteen and completed it at age sixteen.

Reading Group Guide

1. Lilliana and Vivian grew up with only a wall separating them, but they turn out very differently, each with her own issues. Who do you identify with more, and if she were your friend, how would you have suggested she deal with her problems?

2. Early in the book, Harry says “he liked being known as part of a working thing: a family, a machine.” Does the word “machine” describe your family? If so, what role in the machine does each of your family members play? If not, think of another word that describes your family and talk about why this fits.

3. What do you think of Bea? Do you feel sorry for her? Annoyed by her? Bea asks herself “What was Bea without Harry?”…what do think is the answer to this?

4. Sex plays an important role in both girls lives but for opposite reasons: Vivian because she is a virgin and Lilliana because she sleeps with almost everyone. What about their personalities drives them to make these choices? What do you think of the way that their friends talk and gossip about sex: cruel or normal?

5. It took twenty years for Harry to officially recognize his unhappiness in his marriage. What do you think the early years of Harry and Beatrices marriage were like? Why do you think Harry didnt leave Beatrice earlier? Once he finally did leave, what do you think the woman in red blouse and black skirt represents to him?

6. Is Lilliana in love with Paul? If yes, how should she have dealt with the situation? If you think it isnt love, then what would you call it and why?

7. Why does Lilliana cut herself? Why does Vivian starve herself? What does this self-inflicted pain bring them in the end?

8. Would you say this is an accurate portrayal of a family in distress? Of teenage sisters? If you have a sibling (or know someone with a sibling), is he/she as different from you as Lilliana and Vivian, or are you more alike?

9. What do you think we would find out if there were another 50 pages in this book? How do you see Vivian and Lilliana resolving, or not resolving, everything? How about Bea and Harry?